MODERN HOUSES

Grey River Argus, 10 August 1925, Page 8

MODERN HOUSES

CHALLENGE TO CONCRETE. NEW BUILDING MATERIAL. To build a house out of tho. clay that can be dug out of our own allotment, a home that will, quickly solidify into u material as solid as stono would be regarded by every homeseeker as an ideal solution of the home-building problem (says the Melbourne Herald). That houses can be built in this way is the claim of Mr AV. Dunstan, an experienced Victorian mining engineer, and to prove his theory he has built himself a house at S 3 Heller Street, West Brunswick, which is both novel and interesting. Whether the system will solvo tho problem of cheap house construction, time and further experiments must be left to demonstrate, but the house in Heller Street shows that- a great deal has boon done to explore tho possibilities of n now material. It is a timberframed house with lath wall outside, and inside, coated with material which the constructor certifies to be earth dug from tho allotments on which it is built. It has been in existence between two and throe years, and shows nc signs of being affected by the weather. It has a flat roof carrying a coating of the same material, with fall of only ' one in sixteen, and there is not evii dence of leakage.

Though the walls in tills example are keyed, with lathing, it is claimed that the material can be erected solidly without reinforcement, and that it will speedily attain the condition of artificial bluestone. To create this durable, material the inventor uses n chemical solution which he mixes with soil, clay, sand, slimes from mines or any other earthy material in the proportion of -15 per cent nf hie solution to 85 per cent natural material. The element used is a commonly used chemical by-product which can be obtained in unlimited quantities at £1 to £2 per ton.

BUILDER'S DEMONSTRATION. Tho walls of the house that has been built are hard and appear to be durable. They are of an attractive grey white colour, but the tints can be varied by the use of soils from other places to reveal rich chocolate brown and orange tonings, which shpuld be attractive in interiors. Of course, the cost of erecting timber framework with close lathing must bo reckoned as about equal to tho cost of building an ordinary weatherboard house, less the -’-ost of plastering, but Mr Dunstan says it would be a simpie matter to build a house of solid material without the use of laths or framing, or to pour it into moulds in the same manner ns concrete houses are poured. He gave a demonstration of his mixing methode. Selecting a small quantity of chemical solution, he mixed it to the extant of 15 per cent with slime from mines, a quantity of which he had on the ground. Pouring in a little water, he worked the whole mass until it became a thick paste. This he plasterpd on a form of laths, and then to hurry the drying process, he baked it in an oven. At the end of an hour he produced a slab of material as hard as the walls on his own house, and. keyed in the laths very firmly. The matter pro trading from laths ou tho inside was so hard that it eould not bo chipped with a billet of wood.

Mr Dunstan really’ proposes to develop his patent commercially in two ways. First, he hopes to undertake contracts to build houses, in sjtu of material taken from Hie ground; but apart from this he proposes to establish a factory for the production of slabs of walling. The best material, in his opinion, is slime from the mines. Mass quantities of this material can.be had in mining centres, and there is no doubt thnt if they could be converted into houses very great advantage could be gained.

Another use for the material• Mr Dunstan states is road-making; it appears to set firmly on the ground, and if laid with ordinary bluestone metal embedded in it, would make a hard, dustless and durable surface.

After seeing the house that has been built and the way* the material is made one would wish to see a solid house constructed of the same material without the use of laths. The inventor is prepared to do this as soon as he has secured the necessary* financial backing.